Nothing's Ever Easy, is it?
by invisible0one
Summary: We could feel the war just around the corner. We didn't know what the sudden appearance of more and more halfas meant at the time, but as we felt them appear, we also felt the war coming. Fate was creating warriors for the human race, but things would have been so much easier if we'd known that sooner. Clockwork, be with us; the world was coming to an end.
1. Chapter 1

I felt the twinge again, the same one that Dani and I had felt too many times to count over the past month or two. Well, it was just a twinge when it started, but now it felt more like a punch in the gut.

I looked up in shock at my cousin. "You feel that?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah. They're getting stronger. We need to figure out what's causing this," she answered; "this" being the transformations we were feeling. Danielle and I didn't have a clue why, but halfas were suddenly starting to appear around the world and we could feel the change of each human as they became half ghost. It was like a sixth sense, informing us of the creation of a new halfa. We tried to track where they were appearing, but there was a small issue.

Once we had the signature of the newest halfa, we could track them with ease, but after that first twinge we always lost the trail until the newbie managed to trigger the rings that would change them to their ghost half. We were getting better at tracking these guys down, we could often figure out what major city they were around by now, but until they triggered their rings for the first time, we didn't have a way of determining who it was. Currently, we were in South Dakota, hunting down the last halfa we felt, but this new twinge/punch in the gut belonged to a stronger halfa. We couldn't protect them all, but we could protect the strongest one.

"They're in Dallas," I stated, though I knew Dani had to have come to the same conclusion.

"Do we go, or stay here?"

"We have to go. They'll be in more danger." I hated that we had to leave any of these guys on their own, but there were hard facts we needed to face. We couldn't protect all of them, but we could keep an eye on the strongest one, the one who would have the most people targeting them.

Neither one of us knew what was coming, all we knew was that something was about to seriously hit the fan and we were going to need all the help we could get.

* * *

"Would someone please remind me why the hell I'm here?" I asked no one in particular, though by the sound of his slight chuckle, I'd have to say Noah had heard me. I, of course, knew why I was here. It was the middle of summer, I was bored out of my mind, and needed out of the house. As a result, I'd found myself agreeing when my "friends" had invited me to go the to mall with them one day, endure a sleep over with them that night, then go to Main Event the next day.

Now, I was regretting it as they did the same thing they had been doing over the course of the last school year.

I guess all the tension between me and my so called "friends" had started last summer, though at the time I didn't realize it would affect my relationship with more than just one of my friends. Long story short, Rachel started this shit. Essentially, she deemed me unworthy of being her friend. I'm going to get this straightened out now, none of us are anywhere near popular, especially not her. It wasn't a matter of me just not having enough of a social life for her, I was just unworthy of being her friend. I know she gave me some bullshitted reasons for it at the time, but I also know what it comes down to in my mind.

Anyway, after that I realized I was losing two of the few people I really trusted at the same time (I'm not talking about the other, that's still a pretty emotional bomb for me), though I thought I could get through it without having too much trouble. I still had one friend I could trust with anything and the rest were still by my side in their own ways.

I was wrong.

When this all first started, I didn't realize Rachel was the unintended leader of the group. She deemed me unworthy and the rest of my "friends" started to pull away. In class, I could ignore it since we didn't really get a chance to talk anyway, but lunch was a different story. At lunch, we were granted an hour to run around and do pretty much whatever the hell we wanted so long as we stayed on campus. The first few days were fine, we all sat on the bench in the hall outside the cafeteria and it felt like I actually had friends. Then, they started making lunch plans without me. Instead of sitting at the bench, they'd run off to their French teacher's room, or some other teacher they knew.

They invited me once, when I had something else I needed to do, and that was it. We went the whole fucking school year, and they only bothered to invite me to stay with them one fucking time. Yes, I told them I was pissed and one friend actually made an honest attempt to fix it. One time. She tried for one day. Needless to say, Lauren was the best damn friend I had in the group for that one time she tried to make things right.

So yeah, there's the sad story of my lack of friends, and now I was currently hanging out with them, plus one: Lauren, Rachel, Sammy, and Steph were all part of the group that ditched me, and then they'd also convinced Noah to come.

By "convinced" I mean they likely dragged him here by the ear.

You think I'm joking? I'm being dead serious. I wouldn't put that past them.

Noah was a friend of all of ours...well...kinda. It's really kinda hard to tell with him. He doesn't make a point of not talking to us and sometimes he won't try to run when we attempt to talk to him, so I'm gonna say he considers us friends.

"Did they drag you here too, or is this actually of your own free will?" Noah asked

"Free will," I responded, "though I'm seriously regretting it now."

He looked at me oddly. "You mad at them for something?" Another thing about Noah: He's a freaking genius, but he's so freaking clueless it isn't even funny.

"Just abandoning me. Again." Noah nodded, having known about some of what the others had pulled over the course of the year. I don't think he knew I really couldn't care less about what happened to Rachel, but he knew I spent lunch alone most days. I'm pretty sure he'd have talked to me during lunch if we were both a little less socially awkward. I didn't blame him for leaving me alone at lunch; we never were great friends and he didn't pretend to be, and if he'd tried talking to me at lunch it just would have ended in an awkward silence.

Of course, my oh so wonderful luck decided to hold out and the others in our group managed to actually pay attention to me as soon as I mentioned something about them abandoning me.

"We don't abandon you." If looks could kill, the glare I was currently sporting for Rachel would have blown her ass sky high.

"Bullshit." I saw her wince at my language and had a small moment of victory. Rachel doesn't stand for cursing and hates that she can't control me enough to make me stop it. "You all left me completely alone all fucking year at lunch and not one of you cared to even act like you gave a damn." Normally, I could hold my rants back, but the fact that I was dealing mostly with Rachel right now and that they had already pissed me off today made it hard to hold back.

"Well, I'm sorry! You get kinda hard to deal with when you go into one of your depressed moods!"

That did it for me. She was not going to get away with throwing that back in my face, not when all of these bitches had only been making it worse.

"Well, pardon me for actually giving a damn when the only person I'm not related to who honest to god cared about me disappeared off the face of the planet! Pardon me for getting just a touch upset when you broke my trust!" I closed my eyes, fighting back the tears threatening to form as I turned to face all of them but Noah. "All of you have acted like complete bitches all fucking school year! Yes, I got a little depressed, but being abandoned by my friends sure as hell didn't help! Do you not realize that the only reason I still put up with any of you is because I don't have anyone else? That's how fucked up my life is right now! The only people who I can talk to don't actually act like friends! And none of you seem to understand that I've spent the last year isolated in hell and..." I trailed off as I saw the look on their faces. "Oh, what the hell is it now?"

Steph shook her head. "Ellie...your eyes...they're glowing green."

Now that surprised me. I wanted to ask her why the hell she thought now was a good time to be joking around, but the look on all of their faces told me she wasn't joking.

I had a mini freak-out, in which I turned on my heel and abruptly walked as fast as humanly possible away from the frightened looks all of them had. I heard a male voice behind me, but I was too far gone to realize it was both someone I knew and calling after me. I kept walking until the nearest exit graced me with it's presence, allowing me to get out of the mall that suddenly felt too crowded for my tastes.

It wasn't until I'd been firmly hidden out of sight behind a few trees (yeah, not the best hiding spot, but it was all I had) for a few minutes that I heard that male voice again. I turned to the sound of my name, only to be greeted by a rather worried Noah.

"Are you okay, Ellie?" I was surprised that he was here after I'd practically run from all of them. I was surprised he was here after I'd scared the shit out of everyone.

"I...I'm fine. I think." I paused, deciding whether or not putting the socially awkward boy on the spot was really such a good idea. In the end, my curiosity won out. "Why'd you follow me after I scared the shit out of all of you?"

He shrugged. "Because I kinda know how your mind works, even though we don't talk much. I know you, and there are only two possibilities for what just happened; either you were in complete control or you were just as scared by it as us. Something told me you wouldn't want to be alone if it were the second."

"Thanks." He smiled back at me. "Where are the others?" I knew it was probably a bad question to ask, but I had to know.

"Do you really want to know the answer to that?" I nodded, even knowing what he said was likely to piss me off again. "They stood there, stared for a moment, then walked off."

"Fucking bitches! They can't be bothered to act like the friends they claim to be, even now!" God! They weren't like this in middle school. What the hell happened to them?

I was clenching my fists, knowing that punching the nearest available object was not my brightest idea; Noah didn't deserve that.

"I think you need to calm down. Your eyes are glowing again."

I gave him one of those looks that said "are you fucking kidding me?" to which he only shook his head in response. I clenched my eyes shut, trying to calm myself down before I opened them again. "Better?" I asked.

"Yeah. Do you have any idea what's causing that?" I could tell he was still a little freaked out by it and honestly, I was too.

"Nope, and I'm frankly too pissed at the others to bother searching for an answer that's going to be nearly impossible to find right now." That, and I was kinda scared of what answer I'd end up finding. It could be something that didn't mean anything, that would be the easier option to deal with, or it could be something that only screwed with my life more. I'd love to think it might be the easier option, but nothing's ever easy for me lately.

Noah chuckled. "That mad at them, huh?" I nodded as he shook his head. "Do you wanna go back inside and walk around on our own, or just sulk out here?"

I shrugged. "We'll go back inside, but I am not responsible if we run into them and I rip a few heads off."

"I really wouldn't blame you." He held his hand out to me as he got up, the simple act reminding me of why I fell for him a few years back. I refused to fall back into that hole though, it took way too long to figure out last time.

As we started back inside, I heard him speak again. "I know neither one of us is very good at conversation, but if you ever need me, I'm here for you."

I smiled back at him. At the time, I wasn't aware of just how much I'd be needing him in the future.

* * *

_Whoo! New project! Because my mind and the plot bunnies decided that five on-going stories wasn't enough._

_For anyone reading any of my other stories, I have a summer update schedule posted on my profile among all the other random stuff I have up._

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	2. Chapter 2

I spent the rest of the day with Noah and even managed to rope him into his real conversation a few times over the course of the day. We ran into the others once or twice (something that really wasn't much of a surprise considering the mall was a huge circle) and I certainly did have a few choice words to say to them. They really didn't seem to keen on dealing with me again after that. Lauren was pissed at me in general because Noah was hanging out with me and she liked him, but she barely did me any favors last school year so I really couldn't bring myself to feel too bad about it.

Needless to say, I went home at the end of the day instead of bearing the sleepover I originally signed up for, I'd had enough of those "friends" for a while, I wasn't going to be willingly spending time with them again any time soon, if ever at all.

Honestly, I'd forgotten all about the whole glowing eye thing by the time I got home. I didn't remember it again until later that night when I realized my room should be pitch black...and I could see perfectly. Great, so this wasn't going to be something I could just forget about. At least this was a pleasant side effect for the time being.

The not-so-pleasant side effect showed itself to me the next morning when I woke up under my damn bed. I groaned, glad that my siblings hadn't been the ones to wake me up. God only knows how I would have explained that.

What the hell was happening to me?

I was confused as hell, so I did the same thing anyone would: I avoided the problem by mindlessly shooting things on my computer.

Two or three hours passed and I had determined only one thing: I hate spies. You're so easy to kill when you choose them as your character and so freaking hard to deal with when they're up against you.

And that's not even counting the fact that my computer keys seemed to be having issues; I hit them and it'd take a few tries to get them to work. In the end, this got me killed a few times and I gave up before I got anymore frustrated.

I closed out the game, moving on to the internet in my attempts at avoiding the problem. I was doing well until I got on Facebook, only to find what was very likely to be the first FB message Noah had ever sent to anyone ever without being annoyed by someone first.

**You doing okay after all the drama yesterday?**

I smiled despite myself, then shook my head. I could not let myself fall for him again. I've spent three years in that hole already, I'm not falling down it again.

_Yeah, but the weirdness from yesterday is only getting worse._

**What's going on now?**

_Well, I sem to have gand pefect night visin and I woe up uder my ed._

**... What was that?**

I looked back at my previous message and groaned. What was wrong with my keyboard? I'd never had problems like this before.

_I woke u nder y bd and hve perct night vison._

**Is something going on with your fingers? I somehow doubt you're typing gibberish on purpose.**

I looked down at my fingers, only to find that my hands were fading in and out of existence.

_God damn it! First I found I had perfect night vision, then I woke up under my bed this morning, and as crazy as this is going to sound, now my hands are fading in and out of existence._

**...wow... I really don't know what to tell you.**

_What the hell is going on with me? O_O_

**If I could help you, I would, but I haven't got anymore of a clue about what's going on than you do.**

_I think I'm just gonna go back to shooting things and trying to get my mind off it now._

I figured that would be the end of it, but just before I could close out my internet, I saw one last message from him come through.

**You can't hide from this, Ellie. You are going to have to face it sometime.**

He thought I couldn't just ignore it? He might have been right, but I could damn well try.

* * *

_Claw-like nails look freaking awesome, but make typing so much slower..._

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	3. Chapter 3

"Why can't we find them? It's been a week, their transformation should be active by now," Dani grumbled, getting more and more frustrated at our failed attempts at tracking this new halfa down.

"Just because they can do it by now, doesn't mean they will. It took me days to figure out how to transform and I was actually trying to pull it off." Honestly, odds were that their first transformation would be a complete accident; it's doubtful any one of the new halfas would have even half a clue as to what they were or could do. "We just have to be patient."

Dani went silent and then back to stabbing at the dinner in front of her. Even though she was biologically in her twenties like me, she still sometimes slipped back into the mindset of the ten year-old she was.

I checked my phone out of boredom as I waited for Dani to finish eating. I sighed when I saw there was still no word from Sam; I'd really fucked up this time.

"Has it even occurred to you that she might be waiting for you to stop beating yourself up and just call her?"

"Danielle, you saw how pissed she was before we left. I can't call her first if I plan on living."

Dani looked at me like I was stupid. "Do you even realize that you're being harder on yourself about this than she is? You fucked up and someone ended up in the of fire and still came out fine."

"That was my daughter in the line of fire! Sam wanted to kill me and probably still does!" I sighed. "I can't believe I was that stupid. I wasn't paying attention and Lily got hurt!"

"Danny, Lily was fine. Yes, Sam wanted to kick your ass for it, but I know she also realizes that Lily needs to learn to fight for herself. She's your part ghost kid, there have been targets on her back from the moment she was conceived."

"She got hurt because I didn't do my job! I know she needs to learn to fight, but she shouldn't have gotten hurt on my watch! I don't deserve either of them."

Dani stood up, leaned over the table, and slapped me across the face. "Stop fucking punishing yourself and call your damn wife."

"Maybe later," I said to appease her, but I if did call it wouldn't be for a while. I shook my head, trying to regain my focus. "We've got a halfa to find right now, though."

* * *

It'd been a week since all this shit began, and it was still out of control. At least now I could usually get myself back in control before anyone noticed when my...powers slipped. I only had a month to get this really under control, there was no way I could go back to school with as little control as I had. Someone would notice something, all my advanced classes kinda cut out all the idiots.

Though, it actually wasn't the idea of someone catching my slip of control, it was what would happen when I finally found the real reason for being like this. I didn't know what the hell I was, but I did instinctively know that something had caused a change on at least the cellular level; something wasn't human about me.

Now, some people might get all "I'm a freak" and depressed, but I honestly couldn't care less. There are very few things that bug me and not following the norms was my normal. I was used to being outcast because I was different; the fact that I had always been Wiccan was part of why Rachel had disowned me as a friend. If someone managed to realize that there was something very not human about me, well their reaction would lay the foundation for mine. If they were accepting, then hey, they rock. If not, well they could go fuck themselves.

No, we are not going to go into the psychological reasoning for me thinking this out so thoroughly. I am so not in the mood for that.

Noah has kept in touch since the first incident. He doesn't message me every day, but three times in one week is saying one hell of a lot for him.

Then again, it isn't really all that surprising, now that I think about it. Noah had been keeping a subtle eye on me all last school year. It was inconspicuous enough that it took me a while to catch it, but I did see it. He'd never done that before and I can't help but wonder if it was something David had told Noah to do for him before he left.

David. That was one person I knew I needed to let go of, but couldn't. He was my best friend before something in his life hit the fan. Personally, I think his sister screwed him over, his mother believed her, and his dad (being technically his step-dad) fought for him, but not nearly as much as he could have. I don't have any proof of this, but I never could quite get over the satisfaction that came from seeing his mom's wrist broken.

I don't know if I'll ever find out what happened to him, all I know is he's been gone for a year now and he left without even getting to say goodbye and it sucks. I lost him, the only person on the damn planet who knew the difference between "I really don't want to talk right now" and "Prove to me you actually care," about a month before Rachel disowned me. And you know what, maybe it's the fact that no one else has ever reached that level of understanding that's made it impossible to let go, but I don't care. He never gave up on me, and I refuse to give up on him.

Part of me hopes to god these developing powers would give me some way of finding David again.

Even though David never said goodbye, he did know things were about to hit the fan before it happened and I wouldn't be surprised if he did ask Noah to keep an eye on me. David was the one who brought Noah out of his tight little shell somewhat, having been really good friends with him, and Noah knew how protective David had always been over me.

I remember being curled up on my bed, thinking about all of this when two things happened.

First, I saw the sky flash green for the barest fraction of a second, then there was a bright flash of blinding light and when I managed to pry my eyes open, I instantly knew something had changed.

One look in the mirror and I damn near screamed.

My hair was not supposed to be fucking black.

* * *

_Hey look! A chapter! :D I FEEL SO ACCOMPLISHED! ^_^_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	4. Chapter 4

It'd been a month since Dani and I left as planned to check out the newly appearing halfas, but I hadn't heard from Sam once. I knew she was okay or mom and dad would have said something, but she still hadn't contacted me.

I shouldn't have left while she was still that pissed at me.

It wasn't like I decided to suddenly leave to go check things out, Danielle and I had been planning it for days before the incident, and when Lily got hurt, I considered putting it off, but for some reason I thought leaving on schedule and letting her cool off might be a good idea. It's become clear since that that was not my brightest idea.

Maybe Dani's right and I am punishing myself more than Sam ever will, but that doesn't change the fact that my wife was royally pissed off at me. I'd never seen her that pissed off before, the closest I'd seen had been when I may or may not have nearly gotten myself killed when she was pregnant. I screwed up; I wasn't paying attention in that fight, I didn't keep Lily out of it when she decided in her three year-old wisdom that she could come help me, I didn't make sure she went back to the house when I told her to.

I didn't keep her from getting hurt.

Lily didn't get any injuries her ghost genetics couldn't fix, but it was a close call. She broke her arm when she fell from the sky after the blast that burned a good chunk of her torso, the skin was pretty much gone where the blast hit. When I first saw the damage, I thought it might be too much for her to heal on her own. Considering that she isn't fully half ghost like me, her ghost part is pretty strong and can take care of most injuries, but I know there has to be a line somewhere. When I nearly got myself killed fighting off an escaped Dan, mom and dad had some serious work to do to put me back together enough for my ghost powers to take care of the rest. It's almost like there comes a point where my powers just fail because they don't know what injury to take care of first. If I have a line at which it becomes too much to heal on it's own, I know Lily has to have one too, one that doesn't cover nearly as much damage as what I can take.

I don't ever want to find out how much Lily can take on her own; I'm not sure I'd be able to live with myself.

I sighed as I laid down for the night in the latest hotel Dani and I had checked ourselves into. Right as I closed my eyes in an attempt to sleep, three things happened.

My phone went off, I saw the sky flash green again, and I felt it as my ghost half finally found the signature of the latest halfa.

If Dani hadn't been out grabbing something for us to eat, we would have gone to find to the halfa right away, even though it was the middle of the night, but we'd agreed not to go chasing down the new signature on our own almost as soon as we left. We didn't know what the hell was causing it, so it was best not to go investigate on out own in the event that it was trap; we had a better chance of getting out of there alive if we were together.

Dani would have killed me had I gone to investigate on my own, so I did the only thing I could and checked my phone.

_Call me. -Sam_

* * *

I remember staring at the mirror for several minutes in a mini freak-out. What the fuck just happened?

This freak-out was only heightened when the same flash of light appeared moments later and I found myself looking at exactly what my reflection should look like. I let out a sigh of relief; whatever the hell just happened wasn't permanent and therefore something I could deal with.

Except for the fact that I found myself switching back a minute later as my bewildered mind tried to figure out what that transformation thingy had been. This time, it didn't go away on it's own though and the part of me that had just stopped freaking out about it instantly began freaking out again.

Eventually, I managed to calm down and force myself to think this through. What had caused this? As soon as I got my head on straight again, I realized that that wasn't actually that hard of a question. Nothing even remotely related to anything like the transformation that had taken place before the rest of this weird crap started up, therefore it probably was connected to the night vision and disappearing limbs.

I calmed more as my mind started working things out, solving a good puzzle often relaxed my mind. Logic was good, logic could be explained and what I liked to go back to when nothing made sense. This fixation on logic was also probably why I hated deciphering emotions so much.

Once I realized that this sudden transformation was probably related to the rest of the odd things I'd been facing lately, I was rewarded with the memory that I had managed to get to a point where I could almost pretend I had control over the disappearing limbs. If I was learning to control that, then shouldn't there also be a trigger thing that controlled my transformation?

I tried focusing on being myself again, but after several minutes I realized that wasn't going to work. If that wasn't going to work, then perhaps I needed to find a less conventional way of doing this. I took a different approach, working on the idea that whatever was making me transform and everything else would leave some form of a trail in the less visited regions of my mind that allowed me to take control over normally unconscious actions.

If they didn't, then I was fucked.

Really, I didn't know what the hell I was looking for, but eventually I came across something that didn't feel normal as I forced myself to become conscious of some of my normally unconscious functions. As I took a conscious control over my breathing, I noticed there was another feeling tugging on me, almost as though it had become closely connected to my breathing. I didn't know what that meant in the long run, but I focused on it in an attempt to see if that was the trigger I was searching for.

I nearly did a cartoon-style victory screech as I felt the unfamiliar rings of light form again and pass over my body, returning me to my natural state. Then, I felt a wave of exhaustion hit me and literally fell onto my bed as I barely made the two steps it took to reach it before I completely collapsed.

* * *

_One day, I shall keep up with my writing...but not today._

_Let's see...holiday, then unexpected guests, then expected guests, then I felt all sentimental and didn't actually get around to writing. So...there's my latest excuse for my laziness..._

_By the way, the song Auld Lang Syne has this habit of making you feel all sentimental... WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO ME, FISH?_

_Ahem, sorry about that. Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	5. Chapter 5

I called Sam as soon as I saw that text, praying to god it hadn't been because something had happened. The line rang and it was several minutes before I heard my wife pick up.

"Hello?"

"Sam?"

"Danny." I could almost hear her smile.

"Hey, Sam. What's going on?"

"I'm wondering why the hell you left after what happened, that's what's going on."

"I'm sorry. I let Lily get hurt, and I'm sorry."

"Danny, I'm not really mad about that. I didn't like seeing her get hurt, but I also know she needs to learn not to get into a fight she can't finish. As much as I hate it, Lily will never be safe and it's probably best for her to start learning to fight and heal now." She paused for a moment. "Danny, why the hell did you still leave?"

"I thought it'd be best to let you cool down some first."

I heard a soft chuckle come from the other end of the line. "You're lucky the cluelessness is a part of your charm."

"Yeah, so I've heard." I let out a short laugh of my own. "Anything else going on?"

She was silent again for a few moments. "Uh, actually there is. I don't want you rushing home because of it though, I can deal with it on my own for a while. Danny, I'm pregnant again."

"When did you find out?"

"Yesterday."

"I should be there with you."

"No. You are exactly where you need to be- making sure the world our children grow up in is a good one."

"I should still be there."

"But you won't be. I know you and Danielle need to figure out what's going on and take care of it. Just keep yourself alive and I'll be happy."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay. But you better call me if you need anything."

"I will. Do your job, Danny. I'll have to kick your ass if you put me first when there aren't any issues."

I laughed. "Okay, I will."

"Bye, Danny."

"Bye, Sam."

The line clicked silent and Danielle suddenly became visible.

"Everything okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Sam just informed me that I'm still a clueless idiot and that she's pregnant."

"I told you she wasn't still mad."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it." I decided to change the subject before she could nag at me more. "You wanna go ahead and go find our halfa?"

"It's the middle of the night, we should probably wait until morning to go find them."

* * *

"It's noon. Why the hell isn't she awake yet?"

"Probably for the same reason you and the Princess of Darkness used to sleep so late. She's a teenager; that's reason enough."

I did my best not to move a damn muscle as the unfamiliar voices filled my room. I was glad I was rolled over on my side to face my wall; there was no way of seeing that my eyes were wide open and wondering just who the hell was in my room.

"Anyway, you know the first transformation took a lot out of you. It probably drained her too."

"God, it feels so weird to be standing around in some girl's room, waiting for her to wake up."

"Funny, I see no problem with it."

"That's because you are a girl!"

"Just get over it, Danny. You know as well as I do that the sooner we can talk to her, the less panicking we'll be faced with. Hopefully."

At this point, I rolled over, looked the two floating figures in the eye, and asked rather bluntly, if not semi-rudely, "Who the hell are you?"

"We're probably the only people who can tell you what's happening to you." The floating man came closer to me, extending a hand that I warily took. "I'm Danny," he pointed over at the woman in the corner who seemed to be questioning just how much of a brain Danny had. "And that's Danielle."

"...uh...hi?" Yup. That sounded real intelligent. "I'm Ellie..." What the fucking hell was going on here?

"Look, I know this is probably really weird, but could you bare with us for now?" Danielle had approached and practically pushed Danny out of the way. "Just tell me if any of this sounds familiar. If we're wrong, we'll go away, and if we're right, we'll help you through this. Have you noticed enhanced vision, loss of tangibility, or even had a transformation that turned you into something you most certainly are not?" She asked the question as if all those things were side effects of a medication or something.

I just silently nodded in response. "Look, we know what you're going through. We went through the same thing." At this, both she and Danny let rings like the ones I'd found last night slide across their bodies. "You're a halfa, just like us."

"What. The. Hell." Hey look! A sentence like thing actually left my mouth!

"We've never done this before, so just give us a second to explain, okay?" Danny stopped, as if he were waiting for a response, but continued when he got none. "We are still trying to figure out what caused it, but something made you change in a molecular level, changing your DNA profile from that of a human's to that of a ghost hybrid. You're half ghost, whether you want it or not, and it's our job to make sure you don't get yourself killed."

"Well done, Danny. Tell her she could get herself killed; that'll keep her from freaking out," Danielle sarcastically remarked, but my mind wasn't worrying about that at the moment. There was a much more important phrase Danny had used that was ringing through my mind.

"Half-ghost?"

* * *

_Three in the morning, I can't sleep, and even though I've fallen behind on absolutely everything else, this is actually the fourth and fifth scenes I've written for this tonight; the other three are for later chapters._

_I BLAME FISH. There isn't actually a reason but, I BLAME FISH._

_There may or may not be another chapter coming out this week, it depends on whether or not I get around to it tomorrow._

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	6. Chapter 6

"Half-ghost? How the fuck is that even possible?" I couldn't even begin to figure out how that could even be physically possible. How could something dead exist in the same body as something living without completely ending the existence of either part? It didn't make any form of logical or even illogical sense. Something like that just shouldn't happen.

"That's the same question I've been trying to answer for years. Tell me if you can figure it out," Danny muttered, sounding ever so slightly annoyed.

"Oh god, don't you fucking dare go down the whole "I shouldn't exist, I should be dead!" road again," Danielle grumbled.

"Well, even Mom and Dad have determined that none of us should exist, and let's not even start on the fact that the cloning technologies that created you shouldn't even exist yet."

"Danny, shut up. We have more pressing things to deal with than the issues you supposedly got over years ago."

"Do you even realize how much you sound like my wife sometimes?"

"...I'm lost," I said frankly.

Danny and Danielle turned to me, seeming to have momentarily forgotten I was there. "It's nothing important. We just need to start training you and figure out just how screwed we are. Come on," he said and I just stared at him blankly.

"Okay, let's go with no for now on that. First off, I just woke up. I haven't gotten out of bed, much less actually gotten myself dressed. Secondly, I actually do have this mystical thing they call a "family" that might actually realize if I suddenly disappear. And lastly, I met you five minutes ago when you pretty much broke into my room; why the hell would anyone in their right mind just run off with people like that?" Seriously, did either of them really think I was that crazy?

"She has a point, Clueless Wonder," Danielle said.

"Thank you," I said. "If this is really that important, you can come back tonight when I'm actually fully awake and dressed. Now get the hell out of here before my sister hears you. These walls are really thin."

Danielle nodded. "We'll be back tonight then. Look, I really hope you don't think we're just a couple weirdos trying to butt in where we don't belong. We really do just want to help."

"Just go, please." Why the hell couldn't life just let me ignore this shit for a little while longer?

I watched as they both turned and fucking _flew_ my ceiling. How the fuck was that even possible?

The same way the rest of this shit was possible, that's how.

I didn't do much after they left. It was only noon and my mom wouldn't force me out of bed for at least another two hours. At first, I attempted to just roll over, go to sleep, and convince myself it was just a dream, but it quickly became clear that that plan of action just wasn't going to work. Danny and Danielle had managed to freak me out and in fact fully wake me up. When I finally gave up, my mind decided to play with the concept of a half-ghost and just how the hell that could even be possible.

At first glance, it didn't seem physically possible. Actually, even upon deeper thinking, it didn't seem physically possible. Let's say that what I became last night was my ghost half, then shouldn't there be some evidence of it's existence in my normal image as well?

It took me a few minutes to finally figure out what the correlation between my normal self and that ghost part was. The ghost was a reversed imprint of what I looked like at the time of the transformation, therefore my human self is the evidence of my ghost half existing.

But in theory, you also apply that logic to ever person on the planet, half-ghost or not. So, either I was wrong, or everyone held at least the potential to develop their ghost half. The first option would have been the easy one to grab and run with, but the second one just wouldn't leave me alone. Danny and Danielle both seemed to have these powers as well, and Danny had implied there were others in his little rant earlier. Was it possible that the more absurd answer was actually possible?

That still didn't explain just how something dead could inhabit the same matter as something living in harmony. It was a physical impossibility.

I groaned, there was something I was missing here, something blocking my logic, and without my logic I had nothing to distract me.

Seriously, how could someone be both dead and alive at the same time?

* * *

_WRITING. Y U BLOCKED FROM EVERYTHING?_

_I've never had writer's block before, then suddenly..._

_BAM! I can't write anything for a week and I had to fight to make even this happen._

_Anyway, comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


End file.
